Defence of the Fatherland

The collection was created in 2014 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from Nazi occupation. It contains a vast array of various sources, including official documents, newspapers, cards, flyers, memos, periodicals, postcards, photographs, and newsreels. Electronic copies of materials from personal archives of St. Petersburg citizens are particularly valuable to the collection. These include photos, certificates, interviews, drawings, and personal records of citizens during the siege. In November 2018, the Presidential Library launched a major project to collect and digitize family archives related to the city's siege.